Youth of the Year 2011

The Lions Youth of the Year Quest is a project of Lions Clubs International of Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Kim and Lucy

The Quest is designed to encourage student interest in leadership and the qualities required to take an active and constructive role in the community. The Quest is sponsored by the National Australia Bank, and this year Lion Robert Smith was the Chairman of the City of Devonport Lions Club Youth of the Year committee.

Lion Jay McLagan presided over the Quest, and explained that it was not so much about the competition as it was about the experience of the youth involved, to have a go. All participants get a certificate of participation, and that alone can make or break a future job application! Participants were judged on their leadership qualities, their cultural, community, sport and last but not least their academic achievements.

Frances in good company here!

Even the Judges are winners!

This year we started the evening at our City of Devonport Lions club level with two finalists; Lucy Saltmarsh and Frances Aird. Eighty percent of the judging was already behind them, and tonight they had to compete for the final 20%. Both were asked to respond to two questions and a 5 minute talk on their chosen subject. The questions were:

1. What are the key ingredients to built a healthy society?
2. What are the +ve and -ve aspects of social networking sites such as Twitter and FaceBook on young people today?

After answering these questions Francis spoke about the importance of friendship, especially referencing her life-long friend Meg and their respective mothers’ friendships. Lucy spoke about the acceptance of homosexuality, how our society ought to be more understanding, and referencing homosexuality through the centuries from the “Sacred band of Thebes” (4th Centuries BC!) to today.

The three judges for our club were Kim Marshall (NAB), Evonne Ewins (DCC) and Damian Collins (DCC and The Zone). And they decided the winner was... Lucy Saltmarsh!! Congratulations Lucy, and good luck at the Nationals! Remember that Tasmanians have won the past two years, with Will Teare from Launceston winning last year’s Quest!